Dodgy real estate deals hurt buyers, sellers

The Broadcasting Standards Authority has determined that this story was unfair to Amy Wildman, one of the agents featured. On August 10th 2015, TV3's Story programme broadcast an item about property prices in Auckland which included an investigation of one of the factors that might be helping to elevate those prices, specifically real estate agents doing deals with developers which mean some houses are not going to auction. As part of that investigation, we used hidden camera footage of a conversation with Amy Wildman, who was working for Ray White in Mangere Bridge. The Broadcasting Standards Authority has determined that the broadcast was unfair to Ms Wildman and breached the fairness standard under the free-to-air television code of broadcasting practice.The Authority's decision can be found here. We are also supplying the full transcript of the hidden camera conversation with Ms Wildman and a statement from her which we received after the story had aired. We apologise for the distress caused to Ms Wildman and we are happy to make the additional information available to the public.

We've heard how hard it's getting for young Kiwis to buy houses in the current property market, and we've heard it's because Chinese foreign investors are driving up prices.

But is there something else going on? We heard some real estate agents are helping investors and traders get the houses first, so we investigated.

On a regular Tuesday we sent a regular looking guy – our actor, John – into the first real estate agency on our list. We had no idea what we would hear. John posed as a property investor.

The agent he met was Amy Wildman from Ray White in Mangere Bridge. John told her if she helped him find a good place to renovate and sell again quickly, he'd sell it back through her – she could sell the house twice and get the sales commission twice.

John then asked if she could help him catch the property before it went to auction, so he could buy it for less.

Ms Wildman seemingly agreed to help our 'investor' buy properties for less than they may actually be worth. If that did happen, it could be breaking the law.

What she did was not okay because she works for the house seller, and under the law she should be helping them get the best price. She'd be giving our guy the chance to snap up houses before all the other home buyers could even see them. That doesn't seem fair either.

But Ms Wildman is not a rogue agent; we think this may be more widespread.

We sent actors into other agencies because we heard it was happening, and only two of the four agents our actor visited turned us down.

Watch the video for the full Story report.

On Monday 10 August TV3’s Story aired an item about real estate agents utilising an actor posing as a property trader. During this item TV3 covertly filmed the actor talking with Amy Wildman who was working as a trainee Sales Assistant at Ray White’s Mangere Bridge branch. We believe TV3’s Story has taken the actor’s conversation with Ms Wildman completely out of context and believe this stance is supported by contents of the full transcript of the conversation provided by presenter Heather du Plessis-Allan. Ms Wildman strongly refutes and takes exception to any suggestion that she was potentially in breach of the Real Estate Institute’s Code of Conduct, or intended to carry out any deal that was not in the best interests of the vendor. Ms Wildman believes this was an orchestrated attempt to entrap her into agreeing with the actor’s desire to undercut an auction process, and the use of a brief segment of the full conversation was then edited to suit Heather du Plessis-Allen’s comment “…it sounds like Amy Wildman has just agreed to help our investor buy properties for less than they’re actually worth…”. The full transcript clearly outlines a very disjointed conversation that ranged from specific properties to general property market trends. It is also clear the Ms Wildman was very enthusiastic – as would any budding real estate agent be at potentially having willing cash buyers wanting to purchase multiple properties from them. We would challenge TV3 Story to place the full unedited transcript of the conversation on its website and provide viewers with an opportunity to see for themselves the full conversation that took place.

ACTOR I’m assuming you work here?

AGENT Yes I do.

ACTOR Hey look, I just want to look at some properties, more so in the Mangere/ Otahu area, Amy. Amy, John, nice to meet you, how are ya?

Good.

ACTOR But just more so in the Mangere, Otahu area, just looking for do-ups.

ACTOR well that’s the thing and they’ve said well mate you’ve come back from overseas you’re a cash buyer why not?

Yeah yeah yeah

ACTOR use it smartly. I’m thinking well if I can make those gains faster

Yeah totally

ACTOR but it’s a matter of catching it before it goes to auction

Yeah

ACTOR and is that, is that an option? How does that happen you know?

It just might like some people like some people aren’t interested and they are like we just wanna, it’s like we’ve got these people at the moment and they bought a place – not that you’d be interested – but it’s in New Lynn, bought it two months ago, obviously like they’re engaged but the engagement’s off

ACTOR right

So they just want it sold

ACTOR ok

Like it’s like price, there’s a price on it, they just wanna get out

ACTOR right

And every day that goes on like his price is coming down

ACTOR right

So you know that would be the situation where you would be like look I’ve got a buyer, they’ll give you 500 cash today, you don’t have to go through open homes, you don’t have to do anything

ACTOR right

It can be taken off your hands

ACTOR right. You said you’ve got one going, it’s going to be going to sale soon right next week?

That’s that one, that’s that big one

ACTOR so that’s that one. And what do you reckon that’s going to go for?

I reckon that’s going to go for a million though

ACTOR wow

Yeah

ACTOR and they’ll get it eh?

Oh yeah. Absolutely.

ACTOR I’m looking at buying more rather than one

Yeah yeah yeah

ACTOR like I say I’d rather buy three or four than one or two um I don’t wanna sort of put them all into one basket you know what I mean so I need to try in terms of…

I do have [inaudible]

ACTOR even though that’s going for a million

Yeah I know hwat you mean. Oh, there is… no…

ACTOR it’s still appealing. It’s still very appealing. Cos what’s the size of the dirt?

Uh like 870 I think..

ACTOR hmmm

But see like the problem is like I know exactly the kind of one you want but like sometimes what people do is they try and do that like half do-up

ACTOR yup

Which is like

ACTOR but see I’m not yeah that’s the thing

Yeah

ACTOR But I’ve got a team of guys that are good

Yeah quality

ACTOR they’re doing it anyway

Yeah yeah yeah so that’s…

ACTOR I wouldn’t do it. I don’t know one end of the hammer from the other

Yeah. So it’s kind of like yeah you want that before they try and do that because people don’t see value in that

ACTOR yeah that’s right

Ok so how many bedrooms?

ACTOR at least 3

Three plus

ACTOR you know what? I’m looking for family homes that they can

Lounge, dining

ACTOR yup yup

Um… land, 500 plus um… garage, carport? Doesn’t matter?

ACTOR really, well at the end of the day, everyone wants they are selling points aren’t they?

Yeah

ACTOR but in terms of aesthetics, I think we can look after the aesthetics side of things and I’m quite happy for something that’s really run down to be fair. Like honestly the things that the guys are doing

Yea yeah

ACTOR to these types of places now, just incredible.

Well, this place, it’s so cool but you can tell like it’s amazing

ACTOR oh right

But

ACTOR it’s already done

I know but they’ve rushed it

ACTOR oh really?

Like you go round, like I walked in to do the open home and there was like the door knob was on the ground and I was like oh man

ACTOR oh God

And then people were like ‘I mean it looks really good but have they hurried it a bit?’ like you can see the smears of like yeah you know

ACTOR ok

So it is like and people love that you’re you’re on the right track

ACTOR right ok

Like people love that

ACTOR and that’s pretty much, we would do that to that

Yeah yeah yeah totally

ACTOR but that’s… and I don’t… that’s what I mean, I don’t want to do too much, I don’t want to go overboard

Yeah

ACTOR we just wanna

Ok leave it with me

ACTOR well look, like I say I’ve just got back

Yeah yeah yeah

ACTOR cos in terms of my email addresses and stuff

Yup send me one

ACTOR my stuff’s still offshore so um I’ll, what I’ll do is I’ll flick you an email anyway

Yeah yeah

ACTOR I’ll just set up a private account here and then flick you an email but otherwise if you find something in the time

Yeah yeah definitely

ACTOR please give me a call, there’s my number there and then we can go from there but um just yeah like I say, Mangere, sort of, Otahu is, the properties here must be going like hotcakes wouldn’t they?

Yeah but you know, like it's hard work because everyone thinks that you're a shyster. Cos half of them are! That's the problem

ACTOR Really?

Oh yeah! There are some sleazy agents.

ACTOR yeah

And they give everyone, like that’s the problem, what happens is you know like the typical thing is that a vendor, so I work with the Jareds and we have this process so you come in, say I wanna sell my house, wanna get the most out of it you know, so we do this like ok three weeks open homes and then it’s going to be an auction or whatever and you, no matter what offer you get, you’re gonna still go to auction because that’s going to be the most you’re gonna get like, so say you said ok I’ll give you, it’s a 500 thousand dollar, I’ll give you 600 and the vendor’s like oh ok and then we say to the vendors ok if that’s what you really wanna do then let’s take that offer and put it to auction tomorrow, and we’ll get everyone in and if the worst, if yours is the best price you’ll get that but if there’s more, we’ll do that, whereas another vendor would be like ‘oh yeah how much do you?’

ACTOR yeah

‘how much do you want? Ok we’ll just do that’ and then they think ok I’ve cut out auction fees, I’ve cut out marketing, I’ve cut out time cos you know we do the call backs and then we do the da da you know we’re kind of old fashioned.

ACTOR right, well, in that respect Amy, how about in this case if I bought the property through you?

Oh yeah. You could sell it through me

ACTOR Did it and then obviously once we’ve done it up and we put in back through you

Yea yeah

ACTOR But what I need to do is I need to catch it before it goes to auction.

Yeah yeah totally

ACTOR If it goes to auction I’m screwed.

Yeah yeah

ACTOR Because I know I’m going to be paying a million dollars for a house I want to pay eight hundred thousand max for

Yea yea

ACTOR Is that possible

Yeah totally!

ACTOR ok

Yeah yeah

ACTOR because I’d rather come back, get it through you, redo it and then

No because

ACTOR come back and go here look here’s this house

Yeah like cos we do yeah like we probably most agents in a year do like 10 houses, but like so we are doing 8 this week yeah so we do like quantity

ACTOR shit

Because we’ve got the process so like

ACTOR but I’m saying you could sell this house twice in two months

Yeah exactly so that’s what I mean so like we have 8 different scenarios every week. We have one there one there one there

ACTOR right

Last week we had a guy and he was like he owed so much money, his wife had a caveat on the house he was like he was just get rid of it

ACTOR right

I don’t want the marketing, I don’t want an auction, just get rid of it. So we do have that all the time and we always have like do you know property tutors?

ACTOR yes yes

Weird eh?

ACTOR oh

They’re so weird

ACTOR I have a friend who’s actually been to ah, those too

So weird

ACTOR I haven’t been

They’re always like ‘do you think you can help us?’. No, no cos it’s weird.

ACTOR yeah

You know like [inaudible]

ACTOR no no a mate of mine’s been, yeah just didn’t rate it so…

Yeah nah so no I will definitely, that’s you know, if we can build a relationship that’s better but

ACTOR that’s what we’re doing cos imagine if we can move four houses through you

Yeah totally

ACTOR if we can move four houses through you I’d rather deal with one agent than blingin’ you know going to blinging different

Yeah yeah

ACTOR parts of Auckland

Yeah yeah

ACTOR cos you have properties right up in blingin’ New Lynn as well

Oh yeah we have everything

ACTOR wow

But there are three of us cos there are three, like, us three work toghether as a time

ACTOR right, ok

So,

ACTOR see I was looking at properties in Ellerslie, the margins are just, the gains aren’t the same, nowhere near

No no

ACTOR I just sort of thought, then I started looking around here and starting noticing that differences were huge. In terms of biuying one of those, being able to do it up but it has to be caught before it goes to auction

I thought Papakura hasn’t expanded yet

ACTOR Papakura as well

Yeah Manurewa is ridiculous and it’s not

ACTOR do you have a branch out there?

No. oh in Papakura?

ACTOR yeah

No but I live out there

ACTOR oh do you?

Yeah so I’m always you know, eye on the, so we’ve got one that, we’ve got one that

ACTOR could you, could you put things out, on the market out there?

We’ve got one that we haven’t listed yet that is a house and it’s also a section

ACTOR right

So section has nothing on it

ACTOR right

House, so they divided, sub-divided

ACTOR right

They are investors, just want it sold

ACTOR right

Like would take 850 for both

ACTOR ok

And you know

ACTOR I think we need to have a coffee

Yeah

ACTOR really?

So, yeah

ACTOR in terms of sections I’m quite happy to look at bits of dirt too

Yeah

ACTOR and I was, in terms of bits of dirt

Yeah

ACTOR it doesn’t matter obviously the size is the first thing but where it is is probably more important

Yeah yeah yeah

ACTOR and quite happy to look at those without even sighting it

Yeah

ACTOR I’m just wanting to buy bits of dirt

Yeah

ACTOR or houses that need to be done up

Yeah. And this place has got this little house and it needs to be done up it’s a piece of crap

ACTOR right

But it’s it’s a cool kind of little house. It’s actually the house in front of my house

ACTOR so in the perfect world

Yeah

ACTOR If I was to buy that through you

Yeah

ACTOR And then we whip through it and clean it up

Yeah and then we did it and you…

ACTOR And then later on we talk to you about commissions for doing the next one?

Yeah yeah yeah

ACTOR For flicking it the second time?

Yeah

ACTOR ok

So you need to send me your email

ACTOR ok

So I can send you

ACTOR yup cool

The details of this house because yeah because

ACTOR Papakura

They would love me if I said hey

ACTOR hmmm

I’ve got a, and you don’t have to and it can be done tomorrow

ACTOR well I used to live in Drury so I know how much the difference is between the two

Oh yeah

ACTOR but I know how much it has the potential to go off in Papakura

And but you also know in Papakura that there’s a good street, bad street

ACTOR yeah yeah yeah

And and that’s becoming less like even Dominion Road, like ugh, but it’s actually like that places there are going for like 600 you know cos these people bought their section and house because they were trying to do a put a childcare, like they do childcare centres

ACTOR right

So they bought it and then the council was like ‘no’ you know when they’d spent like $120,000 trying to get the consent to build the childcare

ACTOR oh God

And then the council like ‘no no no no no’ and then so they’re like ‘oh my God, let’s just subdivide it and just sell them’

ACTOR Yeah yeah

And so I just rang them up because I live behind them and was like ‘oh you know, what are you doing with that section’ he’s like ‘oh just want it sold’

ACTOR that’s what I’m after

Yeah

ACTOR but that kind of thing in terms of it’s just a bit of dirt but you know if we can get into you know before it hits the blingin’ internet

Yeah yeah

ACTOR that’s gold to me

Yeah

ACTOR same with these things. If they’ve already got a picture and a pamphlet it’s too late

Yeah exactly

ACTOR you know cos it’s already got under the nose, the noses of too many people

Yeah

ACTOR so for me it’s not what I want and like I said

It’s not gonna suit and this place is like, well I live behind it

ACTOR right

So you know because it’s nice it’s got trees in front of it

ACTOR right

Um it’s it’s on Great South Road but like a nice part

ACTOR sure

So you know it’s right near the schools but not on that side of Rosehill

ACTOR yeah yeah that side of Rosehill!

And I don’t think that they’re quite on…

ACTOR Settlement Road way you mean sort of down?

Yeah no

ACTOR Dominion Road?

Yeah no between you know where Beach Road is?

ACTOR yeah

Beach Road, Settlement Road

ACTOR yeah

And like the way to Drury

ACTOR yeah course

It’s like on this way

ACTOR I gotcha

Yeah on, Opaheke side

ACTOR Opaheke side, that’s the nice side

Yeah yeah yeah yeah so um so yeah you could definitely like and they, and I don’t think they’re too like they don’t really know the prices that much so they’d just kind of like ‘oh that would be great, I mean if you got us 850 for both we’d be so happy’.

ACTOR and that’s the thing, for me, like I say I thought coming home cash would be king, it’s not such the case anymore when things are going to auction

Yeah

ACTOR cos people will pay stupid money

Yeah

ACTOR I wanna get my cash to do my work for me

Yeah

ACTOR before it hits the blingin’

Yeah

ACTOR the blingin’, what do you call it

Yeah

ACTOR the gavel

Yeah yeah yeah

ACTOR you know, once it goes that far it’s

Nah it’s over

ACTOR it’s out of my reach

Oh yeah it’s ridiculous

ACTOR well I’m not gonna make the gains that I want anyway

There was a place on Forbes Road in Favona on the weekend

ACTOR oh yes saw it out the front

So you know Favona? Oh…

ACTOR that’s what brought me in here

Do you know where it is in Favona?

ACTOR I know where Forbes is

You know where Progressive is?

ACTOR yeah

And you know that street?

ACTOR yeah

It’s like, oh God I had to take a video of it

ACTOR oh God

And I had to send it to my partner cos I was like oh my God you know, like, it’s ridiculous, oh where is it? Oh yes, is that it, no oh this one here. Oh so this is the street right

ACTOR oh

Cute little house

ACTOR oh hell

Oh state houses!

ACTOR oh, oh geez

State houses!

ACTOR oh, tut tut tut tut

So that, CV 330, 676!

ACTOR at auction? Oh my God, let me guess

Yup!

ACTOR that guy there bought it?

That’s the one!

ACTOR did he buy it?!

Yup

ACTOR haha yeah!

He was like, there were two people

ACTOR oh my God

And he was like, they were like ‘670’ he was like, and then this guy was like ‘671’ and this guy, the Asian guy was like ‘hmmm 672’ like he was just like ‘don’t waste my time’

ACTOR yup yup

Cos he was just gonna buy it

ACTOR yeah they’ll just keep going and just keep going until you give up

I was just like don’t do that

ACTOR and that’s the thing. I was looking at auctions and I came back last time and I was like ‘I’m not going to go through this process’ but yeah but now I’m back permanently and I wanna look at my options

Yeah

ACTOR and I thought this is a smarter way to do it because I’ve got friends that are already doing it and they say

Yeah

ACTOR but they’ve got the building skills, I don’t

Yeah nah

ACTOR so happy with that. Awesome. Look lovely to meet you Amy

Yup

ACTOR thank you very much for that

No worries

ACTOR nice to meet you take care

Yeah just let me know

ACTOR yeah yeah

And I can arrange to, I’ll send you all those details, I haven’t told anyone else about it

ACTOR yup

Um, so

ACTOR that’s cool. That is cool. That goes next week does it?

No it doesn’t go any week

ACTOR oh

I haven’t done it, like, because it’s still got, like, I mean cos I live there, behind them, but

ACTOR right

As I see like

ACTOR course

I see like the process, I see oh they’ve still got to put down the skipment and they’ve still got to put that but you can just tell that like I’m like ‘should I go over and do it’ because you know they have to call someone to do it

ACTOR yup

And then ta da ta da ta da ta da so they’ve still, they’re still like a little ways off

ACTOR gotcha

Like they’re kinda trying do the inside

ACTOR but if you go and go hey we’ve got someone who’s got cash

Oh yeah like, yeah, like they’re trying to strip the wall and I’m just like oh man

ACTOR mmm. How big is that dirt again? The one behind you?

Ah so they’re so I think each section is like 500 yeah

ACTOR ok ok yeah that’s that’s yeah

But yeah

ACTOR you’re on to it

Yeah so I haven’t done anything with them yet

ACTOR awesomne

Cos one of the guys has gone overseas and so I said ‘look I will try and find someone who can just take it off your hands’

ACTOR ok

But and like I’ve got a property tutors guy he’s like ‘oh you know can you?’ and I’m like ‘oh I just think you’re weird’

ACTOR if you can get some lead on that can you give me, give me a call?

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

ACTOR give me a call and just let me know and then I’ll come and catch up with you then and we’ll talk more about it then